P1 phosphor is the dielectric material commonly used as a viewable bistable storage target for storage cathode ray tubes such as taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,293,433; 3,293,474; 3,531,675 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 356,029, filed Apr. 30, 1973, which is now U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,662. This phosphor dielectric material has been found to have desirable dielectric characteristics to enable information written thereon via a deflected cathode ray beam of electrons to be stored for any length of time until it is desired to erase such stored information. This P1 phosphor material can also be used to display information via the deflected beam of electrons in a non-store mode of operation. Hence, the phosphor material provides bistable operation in store, or non-store modes of operation depending upon which mode of operation is desired, and brightness of the visible image formed on the phosphor layer as well as image contrast, writing speed and erase speed are important features attributed to P1 phosphor.
While P1 phosphor has provided excellent operating characteristics as a bistable storage target for cathode ray tubes, the operating life of such target is not as great as desired. Operating life of CRT targets are dependent upon operator use and uniformity of screen usage.